Best-of list · Occasion Guide
The best bars for tourists in New York, London, Paris and beyond — iconic enough to visit, good enough to actually enjoy. Skip the tourist traps.
The short answer
9 ranked rooms follow. How we picked is at the end of this guide.
There is a version of being a tourist in a new city where you end up in a bar with laminated menus, staff who have memorised a four-word sales pitch, and a cocktail that costs eighteen dollars and tastes like cordial. These are not those bars. The best bars for tourists are the ones that are genuinely worth visiting — places with a real story, real bartenders, and drinks that justify the trip.
New York is a city that rewards the tourist who does their homework. The genuinely great bars are not in Times Square. They are in the East Village, the West Village, and Williamsburg — a short subway ride from anywhere you are likely to be staying.
How we picked
The best bars for tourists are not the ones in travel magazines with the widest reach — they are the ones that have survived long enough to develop a character no marketing department could invent. Every bar on this list has a reason to exist beyond serving drinks. They have history, personality, and at least one thing you cannot get anywhere else in the world.
Our recommendation: book the legendary rooms in advance, turn up to the neighbourhood bars without a reservation, and ask the bartender what they would drink if they were off the clock. The answers are almost always more interesting than the menu.
James has reviewed bars in over forty countries. He believes that the most iconic bars in the world are often also the best, but only if you know what to order.
Last reviewed 2026-05-23 · The editors recheck hours and closures against current local coverage.